1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to download of digital media assets and, more particularly, to re-download of previously acquired digital media assets.
2. Description of the Related Art
Today, it is common for users to access on-line media repositories to acquire songs or videos, such as movies or television shows. The typical interaction with an on-line media repository is that a user will browse the on-line media repository, select one or more media items to be acquired, and then receive electronic delivery of the items over a network.
Digital media assets, such as songs, television shows and movies, can be acquired from an online media repository and stored on personal computing devices. However, storage of such digital media assets consume large amounts of data storage. Hence, it is not uncommon for users to consume much of their local data storage capacity for media storage. In such cases, users sometimes delete previously acquired digital media assets from their personal computing devices. While this may free up a portion of their local data storage capacity, users lose their authorized copy of the digital media assets that they have deleted. Although users could be proactive and copy the removed digital media assets to another data storage device, such as an external hard drive or removable data storage device, users often do not go to such effort.
Unfortunately, it is not uncommon that users subsequently desire to access digital media assets that they have previously acquired but have since deleted. Conventionally, users would be required to again acquire another authorized copy of the digital media assets. This can involve the user paying for something they previously purchased. Thus, there is a need to facilitate users ability to obtain authorized copies of digital media assets without having to necessarily locally maintain their initially obtained authorized copy.